Time Delay

It has become apparent to me that there has been and will be a delay in the production of the third Diads album on my end.

One of the reasons for blogging about the progress of the album was to give outsiders a bit of an inside view of the process and what was going into the finished piece. And while a delay may not be welcome news, it's certainly reality and a part of what many projects go through. As you may have noticed over the past month, there hasn't been a new post updating all of you wonderful people. Mostly, I won't be writing a post for the sake of it. I'll be posting again when progress resumes, and I can get back into the mind frame to do so.

So, what's the hold up, buddy?

In short, life. March has been a busy month for me, and I've had practically no time to work on music. Besides my day job (and overtime), family stuff, an out-of-town trip, and other responsibilities, I have my hand in many different things, and I refuse to push all of that aside to work solely on music. I can't. Also, as can be read in a post at my blog, once summer arrives, working on music becomes more difficult, however, not impossible given the right circumstances. But, I will have time to work on music going forward, and during that time, I have another project I need to work on.

The other project.

Last fall, I was approached with the idea of writing music for a show. It will be a locally-based (Minneapolis, MN) fishing show with the aspirations of a 20 episode season being filmed this year. Pre-production for the show has already started. While that is the goal, the possibility of this year being a “trial” year has been considered, and if that becomes the case, the goal then would be to ultimately put together and release a video package to promote and create a buzz for the show. While I took the opportunity seriously last fall, I had no idea what kind of time frame the show creator was suggesting. After talking more about it with him this past January, it became obvious that I needed to get moving on the music, because the plan was to start filming in May.

I have tried to juggle two projects so far this year, and although it worked for a couple of months, I have realized it's not going to work for the next unknown amount of months. Initially, last fall and into January, I was under the assumption that the third Diads album was going to be a quick and dirty endeavor, and I had my sights set on June being a goal to shoot for. After discussions with my bandmate about the songs, reality having its say with how my time is spent, and the need to have music ready for the show, I decided I needed to stop working on the album and pick it back up when it was a better time to do so. Also, I have more music projects beyond the Diads album and the show lined up, and I don't want to dwell and overthink too much on any of them. Part of that means I need to be able to focus on one project and be able to just DO the work and be done.

While I would like to work on finishing the album, I see the show as an opportunity too good to pass up. I've thought about breaking into this part of the business but haven't put any effort into doing so. This opportunity found me, and I'm going to see where it goes. It's something I've never done. I will get paid. It may lead to future opportunities. As long as the show continues, I will continue to write music for it. However, after the initial batch, work can be done more casually; This is my educated assumption.

Another aspect of this opportunity that isn't lost on me is that I'm actually writing music. For some of my projects, including Diads, I'm adding a part or parts to a song written by someone else. While this can be fun and force me to think differently and adapt to their vision, I'm only able to get so much personal satisfaction out of the process and the finished product. With other projects, such as my solo project, Mess of it ALL, I have such a large backlog of songs that are almost finished or in the least started that writing something new from scratch feels counterproductive and just adds to the backlog. So, I have a vehicle in my audio services in which to write new music or revive scraps of ideas I've recorded over the years but most likely just record new ideas. Of course, the client needs to be happy with the material, but so do I or it's not worth it to me. The show has provided me with a new and different challenge that I'm excited to rise up to. It can only help me to get better and grow within the craft.

In conclusion, you'll hear more from me when I have more to say about the third Diads album. I plan to get back to it by the end of the year, but my crystal ball is too foggy to tell you when exactly that will be. In the meantime, please consider checking in with me at my Workshop from time to time. That is the place I give updates on all of the projects and ventures I'm working on, music or otherwise. It’s a new concept I’m trying, and based upon how it's going so far, it'll be updated at least every month or two. Also, I blog regularly here about anything and everything, sometimes briefly or in length.


Until next time,

Graham